Tales of Henwa Island: The Avatar Comes to Town
by Eduard Tubin
Summary: Avatar Aang and a very pregnant Ty Lee arrive on Henwa Island to spend time with friends and celebrate Dominion Day.


**Tales of Henwa Island**

**The Avatar Comes to Town**

Avatar Aang and Ty Lee flew over the City of Komatsu on Appa. Aang steered the sky bison on a meandering path between the more menacing monsoon clouds although he still had to use water bending to steer the heavy rain around him and his pregnant wife. The rain formed a transparent shimmering ball around Appa as Aang steered it away by sheer force of will. Avatar Aang had come to Komatsu to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the existence of Henwa as a nation and to visit old friends. He didn't approve of the Henwanese and their post modern culture but most Henwanese viewed him as an anachronism – old and obsolete. He had to show for the celebrations and have what any important dignitary had at a public event – a _completely_ rotten time. Ty Lee was in her eighth month of a difficult pregnancy and she was in too delicate state to leave at the Northern Air Temple. Despite the long trip, the monsoon rains that hung over the island, Aang knew his wife would have the best medical care in the world in the Dominion.

Aang had to trust Appa and also trust his own ability to sense the rugged hills above Komatsu using earth bending. The heavy clouds above the island meant Aang and Appa had to fly blind. He could sense the slopes of the rugged hills giving way to the gentle hills of the city but as he approached the city from the south, he couldn't see the olive groves and fruit fields that once belongs to Karo's tyrannical and half mad father. As he descended slowly, the clouds parted and he could see the tall jungle trees that formed wind breaks to protect fields of pineapple and bananas. A two lane paved road had a lonely black farm truck rushing along it; headed toward the city.

Aang didn't know Komatsu very well. He passed over the outskirts of the city and over the comfortable looking brick houses of the Dominion's affluent middle class. Appa and Aang knew they wanted to land in_ Bell Hill Park_ which would place them close to the townhouse where the Zhao's lived. He could see the ten story tower of the main hospital – a wet, gray looming steel tower that simply rose out of the ground. Except for windows, it had no ornamentation or adornment. The Hospital Aang realized lay on the south side of the city. As he looked northeast, he could see the green copper dome of the City Hall and the famous steeple of the _Ioakim's Kiokai_ and corrected Appa's course.

He spotted the white sided, green roofed lines of the Komatsu Lighthouse in the rain. He flew over the harbor and across the vast dockyards. A half dozen locomotives waited in the vast switch yard by the docks for their cargo to be offloaded. He descended over the downtown district of Komatsu. He wondered why the Henwanese preferred such functional and dull buildings. The open spaces of the market places Aang had visited in other cities were replaced by squat, square brick buildings of four or five stories plunked onto the grid pattern of streets. He couldn't see the fancy facades of stores, pubs, restaurants and banks from the reins of Appa. He could hear the trams clanging and sparking along the streets, he could hear and see automobiles of all description almost standing still in the streets with engines roaring and horns honking. If Henwa pointed to the future, Aang thought to himself, the future would see people stranded in cars and trams for most of their lives.

A dentist took a few moments from his patient as he watched Aang and his sky bison fly past the fifth floor window of his dental surgery.

Aang wished to fly into the city quietly, without notice and to take a direct course into the city but the radio transmitter towers stood on the highest hills over the city; he didn't wish to fly Appa blindly into one of them. He took a route given on the map that avoided the metal traps.

Ty Lee had visited Henwa Island when it still belonged to the Fire Nation and her circus troop had made an appearance in the major cities. The troupe set up their tents and animal acts on the grounds of the old church that dominated the city from a granite hill (she had never been able to pronounce the name of the city). This gave rise to great offense among the people of Henwa and protests canceled the performance when a group of church goers lit the large pink circus tent on fire.

She hated the place. _Even _as a Duchy of the Fire Nation, the people had an air of cultural superiority and rudeness. Now they were the Realm's economic and technological powerhouse; the people would have grown even more insufferable. She could feel Appa descend but felt no urge to look out at the murky cityscape of Komatsu. The rain fell to either side of Appa and Ty Lee felt comfortable and dry as she rested. She saw a stone church steeple made of dark gray rock with light gray tiles pass by on her right. She knew that steeple because she ran past it while fleeing angry townspeople seeking to incinerate the circus on that awful night. Fire Lord Ozai had the church obliterated after that incident but in true Henwanese character; the people had rebuilt it as if to give the proverbial finger to the Fire Nation.

She couldn't block the chi of _thousands_ of angry people with torches and they ran her troupe out of town.

She felt bloated and depressed as Appa hovered over a grass field lined with palm trees that shaded blue metal bleachers. Ty Lee heard the soft squish of muddy grass soaked by weeks of rain. She hated this place.

Avatar Aang had come to almost expect a reception committee. He saw an empty park lit dimply by what little sun made it through the rain clouds at noon. He looked around and saw a green shed, bleachers and heard the sound of cars rush past on the streets that surrounded the park. He helped Ty Lee off of Appa and waited.

* * *

_The Admiral 670_ had descended from the original _Admiral Mark I_ used to power the _Great Organ_. The _Electric Machine Industries Corporation (EMI)_ of Henwa had discovered a market for these machines among institutions and Universities around the Realm. Each one came from EMI hand crafted to the most astonishing standards and EMI sent the best people to build the machines on site and if the client paid in lots of Henwanese Dollars' software experts to set the thing up.

_The University of Komatsu_ had purchased a new _Admiral 670_ _Digital Computer_ and decided to place Azula in the position of the system administrator. The University refused to pay for a software expert from EMI to set the thing up as they believed Azula had the necessary talent. While EMI had sent two teamsters, an electrician and engineer to set up the basketball court sized machine in Azula's lab; she had to build and install the software. Azula had that job and to her horror the machine shipped with a library of paper tapes that contained the operating system and software. The _670_ ran_ Omix 2 System 5_.

Azula _knew_ what her job entailed. She had a room full of shiny metal boxes with shiny brushed aluminum access hatches forming the bottom half, metal covered gray Bakelite switches, lights and buttons on the top half with two that had a large hinged glass window large enough to crawl through that housed the hubs where paper tape rested. She had a huge machine with no brain but lots of switches and blinking red, green, yellow and blue lights. She had the job of making it do useful work.

The machine shipped with one program called the 'boot' program on a master paper tape which got the machine up and running. This 'boot' program simply found the amount of memory, the storage devices such as paper tape and 'drum drives' and a teletype interface. A set of switches on the mainframe 'toggled' this boot program and had to be set for the machine to start and then set to run software. A set of lights told the operator when to do this.

Azula had one megabyte of 'core' RAM on a machine that filled the room. The machine used two paper tape readers which were attached to the mainframe and the size of a fridge. She had eight 'drum drives' which were hard drives that used a magnetic drum a meter tall and half a meter in diameter. With eight units attached to the machine, she had room for just over twenty megabytes of data.

_The EMI Corporation_ shipped a paper tape terminal – a teletype like those used in newspapers and telegraph offices. It allowed her to type out instructions in the Henwanese alphabet and it printed the result on a long piece of paper tape. She had done her first programming on switches mounted on the front panel of the machine. The teletype made sense as the front panel of the 670 had far more switches than the keys required on a teletype. The Henwanese alphabet had 24 characters all lower case. It had keys for the numbers zero through nine and a half dozen punctuation marks. It looked like a large typewriter in a heavy cast iron metal case that sat on a small metal desk built to house it with the EMI logo on the front built with a paper tray for tractor feed paper underneath.

One didn't install the software: one had to build it from source. A second paper tape had the machine code for the compiler. It built all the other programs. Azula had to build the compiler, install it on the machine and then begin a long process of loading system software source code and hand hacking it then making the software and then installing it.

She had left the machine running for a day to compile the final version of the compiler she planned to use. She had come back in the morning and looked at the light blue typewriter like teletype and found no cascade of paper full of errors. She knew the compiler had no huge flaws and by all signs the 670 was happy.

EMI had shipped the source code for the compiler in a set of books called rather cryptically 'The Source Archives'. These books had wine colored hard covers and were beautifully bound. Azula sat at the teletype desk and began reading over the source code for the compiler. She glanced at the complimentary _EMI DigiClock_ Radio with_ ElectroAccutime_ sitting on the top of one of the paper tape readers. The ugly gray Bakelite clock looked like something a Fire Nation military contractor would build. It gave the time in white flip leaf digits on black cards and Azula noticed the clock told her that it was 11:30 in the morning. She had set the time and never bothered to use the radio.

Something in the back of her mind hinted at an important social obligation she had blown off but she had bigger fish to fry. She shrugged. She wondered why the time could be important. She figured she had forgotten an appointment but what kind? She had recently had a dental checkup. She had to visit her shrink on a regular basis but his office phoned her either at home or through the office at the University on the preceding day.

Katara had no time for Azula's quirks and she shoved the door of the _'Computing Machine Lab'_ open and then shouted: "Azula!"

"What!" Azula jumped up and sent the source code manual flying across the room. "What! Aren't you supposed to have a day job!"

"Aang and Ty Lee are due here at noon!" Katara closed the door behind her and felt a good deal as if she had entered a shiny kind of interrogation room rumored to exist in Fire Nation prisons of old.

"Good for them," Azula stood up and stared at the bank of indicator lights, "and how does shouting at me help?"

"We promised to meet them when they arrive at _Bell Hill Park_." Katara walked and made a great effort not to touch any of the huge metal boxes. They gave off a huge amount of heat and smelled a bit like burning plastic. "I told you and Karo last week and again at supper last night."

* * *

"I _have _nothing to say." Karo uttered as he watched Appa land in the middle of the football field from the eaves of the park utility shed.

No one else had shown up to meet the Avatar and his wife land in Komatsu. Katara had taken the day off and when Azula hadn't shown up at he house as she had promised, Katara went to tear her away from the new computer.

Karo walked forward and adjusted the red umbrella to block most of the rain and heard his rubber boots squish in the muddy grass. He found it hard to believe a rugby player could sustain a concussion on the field. He sighed and tried to look official as he trudged along.

He stood in front of Appa as Aang helped Ty Lee out of the saddle with a carefully tuned air bending move. He landed on the grass gently.

Karo coughed. "I think I know what made my dad such an angry and troubled person. I welcome you to the _City of Komatsu in the Dominion of Henwa_ and hope you have a relatively dry stay." Karo bowed politely. "We have made arrangements to house your sky bison in a currently deserted machine shop across the street from the park. I hope he will be comfortable."

"It's nice to see you," Aang bowed and gave Karo a hug.

"My Azula sense is tingling," Karo wore a look of concern. "Katara and Azula were to meet me here to greet you on your arrival. They haven't turned up. I haven't yet heard any loud concussions of felt myself frozen in a block of ice yet I still wonder what's keeping them."

Aang smiled pleasantly. "Can you please show me where I can keep Appa?"

Karo motioned in the direction of an old warehouse with corrugated steel siding sitting across the street. "The city had given us use of the old Fire Nation machine shop. I checked it out and Appa will be secure and dry although I apologize for the squalor. Doesn't seem right to house a sky bison in a deserted warehouse."

"I've stayed in worse." Aang smiled reassuringly. "Should we wait for Katara and Azula?"

"I don't know." Karo hadn't been given any real diplomatic duties. "I suppose we can hop over to your hotel and then make Appa comfortable." Karo squelched his feet in the mud.

Azula sailed over Appa in a ballistic arc as she swore at the top of her lungs. She kicked her feet and blue flame erupted from her feet with a loud crack and she slowed down and landed in a dignified stance. Azula had her fists in a ball and a look on her face that Karo recognized as the _'about to dump a can of whoop ass on someone'_ look. Azula had the kind of eyes that glowed with rage and as she walked toward Appa she looked utterly pissed.

Katara landed on a surfboard of ice right next to Karo. "If you didn't want to go flying, why did you let go!"

"I nearly lost my head you _Wicked Witch of the South!_" Azula stomped toward Katara and although when Karo tried to walk between both of them; she shoved him to one side. "You told me to _hold on_ and then at a speed close to that of sound, you surf through traffic!" Azula looked to Aang for a second. "As someone who flies, do you have any idea what a wasp striking your chest at three hundred clicks an hour_ feels like?_ I have a hole through me don't I! I hurtled into a wasp and past many large and very solid things. A stone building designed to take typhoons would make pink goo out of me!"

"I made Azula blow chunks going across the harbor." Katara giggled to Aang.

Ty Lee understood absolutely none of this. She couldn't understand Henwanese nor did she understand they had their own kind of bluster and any number of rather colorful metaphors for many rude acts. Azula had used many of them. The language had a pretty ring to it and the pleasing sound of a language like Italian; spoken at the front of the mouth. This made Ty Lee cringe – the people who wanted to burn her and her circus mates had equally pleasing accents.

* * *

"Should I let him eat that?" Aang asked Karo as he watched Appa reach across the hedge of tall cannabis used as a hedge between the townhouses. Appa had begun to ravage them as the group watched him from the living room window.

"He should know what he can eat safely given the theory of_ Survival of the Fittest?_" Karo said as a means of politely saying that he had no idea. Cannabis grew all over the island as did any number of tropical plants from vanilla vines to plantains and coffee – all of which were quite edible. Karo knew other plants and trees would not go down so well but he had never learned much about botany. Much of what he knew came from newspaper stories about locals eating the wrong mushroom and ending up in freak out city or some poor child eating a red berry to discover it caused liver failure. "Maybe we should stop him – the neighbors might not like having their hedge taken out by a sky bison."

Aang leaped up and walked quickly out the door. A shimmer of wet rain formed as he stopped it in its tracks with his water bending. He walked up to Appa with a cheery "Hi buddy."

Azula made herself conspicuous by her absence and this bothered Karo. Karo knew Azula had taken a slight to the manner in which Katara had treated her and she found no joy in seeing Ty Lee on her couch sitting back and resting her back. Azula regarded _Big Red_ as her relaxing and thinking couch; she regarded Ty Lee as someone who betrayed her and the two didn't mix. Azula never apologized for anything, had a withering temper and many other faults that made her hard to like but Karo loved her.

Katara set a silver tea tray on the table and then gently tapped Karo's shoulder. "I should fetch Azula. We have guests and she's decided to hang out in her room and ignore them."

"You should leave her _alone_." Karo said surprisingly assertively.

Katara looked at Karo for a moment: Karo had a shy and obedient nature and yet sounded angry. He had always treated her with utmost respect and it took her a moment to summon the question: "Why?"

"Azula is a pain in the ass at times...much of the time." Karo explained in an angry but quiet tone as he hoped not to make Ty Lee nervous. "You act like she's still a child and treat her like she needs your sage advice and you never give her the credit she has due to her. Maybe you still see her as the mentally frail little girl she was when you defeated her – I don't know. You act like you think the things she finds important in life are unimportant and that she should give much more of her time to the things you think are important. When she doesn't tow your line; you bully and insult her and me."

"I do?"

"You do and you shouldn't." Karo scowled but worked hard to remain calm. "Why should she have to give up a day of her hard work to meet the Avatar in the rain? She has much important work to do if the University is to have its computer and you have no right to drag her away from her work if she doesn't wish to leave."

Katara mused.

Aang returned and stood in the door. "I took Appa back to the park to eat the grass – okay?"

"If he doesn't mind the rain." Karo said as Aang sat down on the couch not knowing of the argument between Karo and Katara until Ty Lee whispered in his ear.

"Water Tribesmen value family, friends and loyalty as well as tradition." Karo said quietly. "You forget that Azula and I are Henwanese. We value rationalism, dedication to hard work and the pursuit of truth. I wouldn't dream of insulting you for following your beliefs so why did you insult Azula for following hers?"

"What happened? Can I help?" Aang nodded thoughtfully. He wasn't stupid and he understood the Henwanese and bit about the nature of Azula. He had a kind of gift as a naïve psychologist and that helped him bridge differences. He knew Azula was Henwanese and the Henwanese had One God or One Truth or The Creator of All. They didn't believe in spiritual enlightenment and were dubious of the idea of the reincarnation of the Avatar. He had read the_ Manifesto of Saint Aristan _of the evils in blind faith or religious devotions as they dulled the mind and lead it off the _Path to the True Nature of Things or Rationalism_. His messengers and students known as _the Four Evangelists_ (also called the Four Saints) took these ideals to the island fifteen hundred years ago.

_Ioakim Bach_ lived just before the fire Nation colonization. _The Rationalists_ valued arts but placed music above all. The Henwanese developed a musical tradition beyond any other culture and Bach became the last Saint or teacher because he _was_ master of all music. He wrote of music as part of the sacred Truth for all manner of church and civic occasions. He wrote music for entertainment. He taught that music was sacred as it was the most abstract and yet precise art and expressed the _highest rational ideals_. According to tradition he taught the the use of gifts to discover the infinite Truth behind all things. He taught that the composition of music, the building of musical instruments and the use of music in the churches because as music embodied pure form and the practice of rational thought; it constituted the sacred art.

Hard work at your job, determination in spite of all obstacles, the use of your rational gifts and the pursuit of truth in science and integrity in your personal life all were part of their path. Laziness and sloth were vile to the Henwanese. Azula was a professed atheist but her mother followed Henwanese beliefs. Azula inherited the dedication to her callings: once she vowed to kill the Avatar and now she determined to follow science. The Henwanese culture and its ideals made this contradiction vanish.

"Azula had some important work to do?" Aang faced Karo and made it clear he understood the problem. "Tell her I'm personally how sorry I am her work was interrupted." Aang looked to Katara but Katara looked confused.

"We see a temple and we think of a place of worship." Aang spoke in Chinese to include Ty Lee. "The Ioakim's Church is a temple but to the Henwanese it reminds them of the power and beauty of rational thought and the piety of hard work. They don't hold ceremonies with lavish costumes or have monks. They hold concerts on important days and the services given by the Bishop stress the pursuit of truth and the duty to follow your path or talents. They have one sacred space inside. The Great Organ is sacred because Bach worked in that church and played the organ and taught in the church school. Anyone can go and use the space and anyone may play the organ. Azula came from a family line from Henwa and Katara," Aang said gently, "you insulted her."

Katara began to believe this news but still couldn't fully understand.

"Azula doesn't believe in God," Karo entered into the conversation, "but you dragged her out of her sacred space. Her sanctuary where she worked to find her truth and follow her path. She is still very Henwanese and in her mind you tore her away from her work for a _trivial_ social occasion."

Katara turned around and bowed to Ty Lee and Aang. "I will return. I have to smooth over some ruffled feathers." She turned to Karo. "I'll talk to her _but_ if she sets me on fire, I'll come back and haunt you!"

Katara walked up the stairs slowly and hesitantly and knocked on Azula's door. "An afternoon ruined..." She whispered.

"Can I come in?" Katara asked.

"Hold on," Azula growled.

Katara heard Azula slide off the bed and plod toward the door. "What other form of social flagellation do I have to face now? Only a Fire Bending Master can open the ceremonial bag of Fire Gummies? I have to quote the entire sacred texts of the Earth Temple backwards in the ancient language of the _Ancient Fire Worshiper_ high priests while standing on my right foot with my left in my hands because the occasion demands it?" Azula opened the door and looked at Katara. "One thing about the Henwanese I like is that they camouflage their major religious ceremonies as BINGO. Have cash, can worship."

"I came to apologize for interrupting your work."

Azula raised her eyebrow. "Oh well...you spared me a whole afternoon of watching the computer do the wrong thing and listening me calling it various rude names for doing the wrong thing."

* * *

Karo struggled with the padlock that held the huge sliding doors of the warehouse closed. The huge building was the last industrial building in the neighborhood. The huge steel building had once served the Fire Nation; now it rusted slowly in the rain. The city had rezoned the rest of the neighborhood south of _Bell Hill Park _for apartments and retail but hadn't decided what to do with the old industrial building. Citizens complained that it stuck out because of the rusty corrugated steel didn't match the brick or stucco of the apartments around it. The owner of the car lot next door constantly complained that it looked ugly and old beside the _'Ultra Modern' Sanger MG Auto Dealership_. Karo suspected it would become either apartments or the long promised ice rink in due time.

"How's your mother?" Aang asked Karo politely as he waited with Appa.

Karo gave up for a moment on the old lock and began to wonder if the city receptionist had given him the right key. "My mom is doing fine." Karo didn't want to reveal Lady Zhao's secret plan to host a baby shower for Ty Lee. "Sorry she couldn't greet you but she had some urgent family business – she had to – umm - go visit a sick friend in the hospital."

Karo resumed his struggle with the lock and it clicked. He let the rusty chain drop to the concrete and began to push on the metal handle. "Can you help me please?"

Aang pushed on the other door. "Appa doesn't like closed spaces."

Karo nodded as the door slid open. He pushed a concrete block in the path of the sliding door. In the dim light in the building, Karo found the large metal jack knife switch. A loud pop ensued and the ugly greenish fluorescent lights came on after blinking for a few seconds. The city had provided a supply of food for Appa in the form of round hay bales and a water trough made from a barrel with steel legs welded to it.

"Not the hotel you'll be staying at but we live close by and can keep an eye on the little fellow." Karo said as Appa hesitantly growled and then walked into the building. Appa smelled rust and coal and stale air. "Actually downright unappealing but at least Appa can walk around. If it ever stops raining, he can go out in the park or fly around the city. I won't mince words – the city council went cheap on this."

* * *

_The Komatsu Galleria (Komasinen Galleria)_ was a shopping mall that took up all five floors of two massive five story buildings built in a kind of Italianate style out of bricks. It housed two massive department stores, hundreds of specialty stores, a food court with a fountain and a public space for concerts or speeches. A well lit underground tunnel running beneath the street linked both sides of the mall. It had an exit to the tram stops outside, a newspaper kiosk and various small kiosks that sold key rings, cold hot dogs and lottery tickets.

The mall opened three hours before the store opening time of ten so senior citizens and those under orders from their cardiologists could take long strolls down the main halls. One turn around both buildings on all the five floors equaled one kilometer walking distance and in the rain, walking indoors beat taking the dog for a stroll in the mud.

Ty Lee found the place perked her spirits. The garish lights of the shops and the windows full of gaudy clothes catered to her needs nicely.

Katara walked with Ty Lee and they did exactly what Azula feared. They talked about baby clothes and went into shops that sold toys and clothes for babies and things for the new mother. Azula had heard of 'breast milk pumps' but never cared to see one. She found herself in a store named _Mom's To Be_ waiting for Ty Lee to finish looking at baby clothes while Katara looked at different breast pump models.

Katara looked at Azula and picked up the paper box containing the item. "A breast milk pump. What do you think?" Katara winked at Azula hoping Azula had remembered they needed gifts for the surprise baby shower for Ty Lee. "Maybe Ty Lee could use one."

"Eww!" Azula yelped at Katara.

"Azula!" Katara chuckled. "You're such a prude."

"Damn right." Azula replied sharply. "Are you really going to buy Ty Lee one of those boob leeches?"

"I thought we might go in together on a nice changing table but _I_ get lonely..." Katara didn't complete the sentence.

Azula blushed from ear to ear. "If you need me I'll – uh – be at the Military Surplus Shop looking for a Rocket Launcher." Azula backed away.

Ty Lee and Katara found Azula in _Suihan's Best Fire Nation Surplus_. This store took up a third of the South building's first floor. They found her looking at a large Katyusha Rocket Artillery Piece.

"Wow!" Azula looked at the huge array of twenty four tubes on wheels. "I didn't think I'd see one of these in such good shape."

* * *

Toph hated the new Zeppelins. Flying a thousand meters over the ocean at 70 knots proved as blinding as a stroke to the Earth Bender. At least the Zeppelin had comforts not found in the new airplanes. In the 30 passenger Henwa made four engined_ Toran 330_, she would have had to sit quietly in a wicker seat for four hours and listen to the roar of the air cooled engines and experience the few seconds of terror if the roar stopped. On the Zeppelin _Aobana Miri (Blue Seas)_, she could walk the aluminum decks with the two hundred or so passengers or retreat to the stateroom (closet with a bed) and enjoy the quiet.

A Zeppelin had all the comforts of a cruise ship but could cross to Henwa in a day rather than three if the weather was good. The linen covered, aluminum ribbed bag had a restaurant and Toph could smell Komodo chicken and potatoes frying as well as a faint whiff of diesel from the two huge engines that turned the propellers. The ship had staterooms for two hundred but for short hops the lounges could hold four hundred more short haul passengers and a good deal of mail and cargo.

One thing did bother her: the Henwa designed Zeppelin used aluminum in its construction and she couldn't bend that pure, light metal. She could feel the metal beneath her feet but to her earth bending sense it was translucent. Even when she stomped her foot, the carpet muffled the sound and she saw only the murky outline of the thin metal ribs holding the floor in place.

Toph felt a sinking feeling and the diesel engines revved down. She felt the ship flex. The Zeppelin consisted of ostrich leather bags filled with hydrogen held together by thin aluminum ribs (hence the technical term rigid airship) all covered by linen pained with shiny aluminum paint. The thing flexed constantly in the winds and rain, but never to the point of failure. Clever engineering made it quite strong. She heard the clang as a metal chain hit the ground. All airships had to let a ground line down to drain static on the hull and avert a fire or worse. Toph knew the hydrogen above her head was a Faustian bargain – it let the airship fly but it was as explosive as blasting gel.

The airship company had plans to convert the fleet to Helium which didn't catch fire but the rare gas came at a high cost so many airships flew with hydrogen. In spite of the risk, the airship had proven safe. Five million people had flown on Henwa Cruise Line airships in the last five years without a single accident and one fatality which was a suicide.

She could hear passengers gather at the windows – a few opened the windows to watch the huge ship dock. She couldn't see the action taking place on the ground. The engines slowed and stopped. She could hear a large truck with a tall tower emerged from a hangar and followed a set of train tracks set in concrete. Members of the ground crew in bright orange rain gear rushed around and pulled on lines at the side of the huge ship to pull it into position. When they had the ship correctly position and hovering a few meters above the ground, they looped the ropes into strong metal loops attached to the concrete surface of the airstrip. The truck with the tower drove slowly forward until it came within a meter of the nose of the airship and one of the airship crew tossed a rope out from a small compartment above the round rubber section that reinforced the metal loop of the nose cone. The tower inched forward and a metal hook locked into the hook of the nose cone. The ground crew rushed around like dock workers and made the final adjustments to hold the huge ship in place so it would stand still and allow its passengers to disembark.

Toph could feel this. She welcomed the solid ground as the six huge landing gear wheels of the ship seated themselves on the concrete. _'On a plane, you fly, on a Zeppelin you cruise'_ as the motto of the Henwa Cruise Lines went. They charged a premium fare to match this argument.

Toph went to her stateroom and gathered up her bags and walked down to the first level and followed the disembarking crowd. Toph felt the rain against her face. _The Dominion_ was famed for rain and the joke in the Earth Kingdom was that the official bird of Henwa was the mosquito and the official plant was the fungus that caused trench-foot. Toph walked out from under the envelope of the huge airship and rain fell on her. A warm monsoon rain that soon soaked her. She welcomed the slick, wet feel of the concrete slab but she found the vast noisy airport confusing. She placed her knapsack over her shoulder. She heard the dull roar of the engines of another airship in the distance and she almost jumped when several mighty fog horns blasted in quick succession. This explained how the airships could fly into the airport in the rainy airport. They blasted once more. The airship engine noise grew in intensity.

She rushed toward the airport terminal to get out of the rain.

Lady Zhao sat in a metal chair inside the airport. The airship had arrived on time. As the slogan went:_ 'If you need to set your watch, use our airship schedule'_. The foghorns went off but the thick walls of the brick terminal muffled their sound. Even if Toph came in on time, Lady Zhao knew she had to proceed through customs and they would likely inspect her bags for any unwanted flora and fauna. The Dominion didn't want invasive species to disrupt the wet and tropical island ecosystem. That it had failed hardly mattered: racoons, rats and weeds had already arrived and thrived. The customs people needed work and seeking out a dangerous strain of cheese mold was good busy work.

The airport was closed to airplanes due to the weather so Lady Zhao couldn't test one of Azula's clever psychology theories. Azula had claimed that airship passengers arrived looking refreshed and rested while airplane passengers looked white and sick.

* * *

Sokka and Suki had chosen to travel by a traditional _Water Tribe_ ship modeled after the ship his father had sailed during the War. Sokka had named his ship _The Happy Challenger_: a reflection of his outlook on life and the fact he was sailing with a dozen gorgeous Kyoshi Warriors. The Kyoshi Warriors had all decided to accompany Suki and Sokka and be with Ty Lee during her life changing time. Sokka had become a skilled sailor at the hands of his father and knew how to ply the seas, find his way and handle a sailing ship.

He wasn't heading for the main harbor: the cargo and passenger harbor handled huge ships that could run over his delicate wooden vessel without noticing. He guided his blue sailed ship to the marina to the south of the city. The large Nafoli Marina served the city's rich sailors and offered a safe place for Sokka to berth.

Sokka stood the at the wheel and guided his ship past the sea wall that sheltered Nafoli from the typhoons in the summer. Nafoli was the southernmost suburb of Komatsu and as the charts showed, it had a tricky approach because a group of rocks lay off the coast waiting to punch through the hull of an unwary sailing vessel. The rain had begun to pick up and the fog had begun to descend. As Sokka approached the marina, the fog descended over the hills and slowly blew down over the coast.

He had never sailed to Henwa before and he had to rely on his charts and that meant the accuracy of the_ Henwanese Coast Guard_. In matters of measurement and mapping, the Henwanese could be trusted but he didn't know the waters himself.

Suki stood beside him and held the charts as Sokka slowly sailed forward. He listened for bouys and heard their ringing. According to what he heard, he had steered onto the proper course.

"Hard to believe people _want_ to live here." Suki muttered as the rain pelted down.

A loud roar and the sight of a blue biplane with white trim came out the sky like a suicide bomber. Sokka and Suki ducked instinctively. The float plane had decided to put down inside the seawall to avoid the heavy rain and fog but had no idea _The Happy Challenger _was also there. Sokka briefly hoped for the best but feared the worst. Somehow the plane landed on the quiet sea without any problems. Suki didn't show any fear but the loud roar had taken her by surprise.

All the Kyoshi Warriors began to walk up the ladder to have a look at their destination. The rain had gone on for three days and so they had gone below decks but the loud road drew their attention.

"Come to the Dominion to experience the Island, stay for the rudeness." Suki spoke in a thready voice. She could see the outline of the plane now bound for the marina. Kyoshi Island had modernized in its own way but remained a quiet, pastoral island nation of friendly people. _The Dominion of Henwa_ had grown louder and more modern with a humid, sticky hot summer climate with the odd typhoon and three months of hellish monsoons in fall. Kyoshi Island was like a nice friendly family while Henwa was more like a loud, smokey bar full of drunk patrons – or so Suki thought.

At some recent point in history, Nafoli and Komatsu had grown together. The marina lay at the far end of a narrow bay. Henwanese style houses encircled the bay and up the hills around the narrow bay. On the side of the bay facing the open sea, tall mangrove trees stood as windbreaks. Nafoli had the same charming look as an English village and looked a good deal like the kind of place that ended up as a picture on a postcard.

He pulled up to the wooden dock and then the cultural and customs problems began. Sokka had left a week ago from Kyoshi Island. He _had_ traveled many times with the Avatar and so he expected to have few problems entering a foreign nation. He had managed in his day to break into prisons and free his father and Suki and he had traveled all over the world. He had little concept of the role of _customs and excise_ in the Dominion of Henwa. As a new but prosperous nation; they had a very firm sense of territory and property. As they had emerged from under the yoke of the Fire Nation, they wished to make it know they had _arrived_ on the world scene. Sokka didn't know this and the idea he had to apply to enter the country had never occurred to him.

Sokka sat in the Nafoli Customs Office as the two staff members looked through the identification of everyone on board the boat. It had the same charming square brick, single story, copper roof; _'belonged in the soaking rain'_ English charm the other buildings did. The interior was a well lit small office intended to serve as the customs port for the marina. An official looking lady watched them from behind a long oak desk as she looked over some paper work. She had graying red hair and looked to be a healthy forty five to fifty.

"I Nafoli..." The lady looked up to Sokka and realized he came from the Water Tribe. "Sir? Can you come forward please?"

Sokka stood up and left his harem of Kyoshi Warriors seated on the metal chairs.

"None of you have a passport." The lady looked like a well dressed Fire Nation official and she waved a pen sternly in his direction. She spoke with a thick accent. "We have found nothing suspect on board your vessel but without a proper visa, you can't be admitted to the country."

Sokka stood at the long desk and faced the customs lady. "My name is Sokka and these ladies are the Kyoshi Warriors. We came at the invitation of the Avatar who came to celebrate Dominion Day."

"I see." She said officially. "How does the invitation allow you to enter the country without a visa?" As if to emphasize the point she then said something very Henwanese: "Give to the Avatar what he is due, but give to us what we are due. If you had arrived at any official port or airport on a cruise ship or Zeppelin, you would have received your visa when you cleared customs. You have to apply in advance when you arrive on a privately owned vessel through a marina; you have to apply in advance to receive permission to dock here."

She held onto a set of papers and tapped them against the large counter. "If you pay your 35 gold customs fee, we can proceed."

In reality, the Dominion used a unit of currency called a 'taler' but in Chinese it came out as 'gold' to Sokka. The name came from _tael_, or piece of silver but Sokka didn't know that. The 'taler' coin (made of a gold colored brass alloy) looked gold and so this unfortunate name remained current among the uninformed.

"You mean 35 gold pieces?" Sokka coughed at the news of having to pay as much as some ships cost. "I think we have ten gold pieces between us?"

This customs lady held onto the official looking documents. She reached under the desk and produced a pamphlet. "Please have a seat and take a few moments to familiarize yourself with _our_ nation. I will ask you a few questions before I issue any visas."

The Henwanese might be unfriendly to foreigners and snobs but they were not corrupt. Sokka sat down and began to read the pamphlet printed in very well written Fire Nation Chinese. It listed all the sorts of things about the Dominion a traveler needed to know. He discovered Henwa was one island in the Dominion. He found out that lamps, radios and things electric from the Fire Nation would not work. He discovered the Dominion used a currency based on a Fire Nation silver piece (gold piece was a misnomer) and the customs fee was actually about a third of a gold piece or about thirty silver – steep enough but not outrageous. Henwa had a reputation for being an expensive place to live and so he expected to face sticker shock on the trip.

"Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe?" The customs agent announced. "I have your visas."

Sokka didn't understand why a middle aged civil servant made him nervous. He walked back up to the desk and awaited his quiz.

"To begin with, can you pay the fee?"

Sokka placed two gold coins on the desk.

"Well...you did your reading." The lady didn't smile. She handed over twelve yellow cardboard covered folders. "Have your_ harem _fill these out and you'll be free to leave."

* * *

Karo didn't know if Lady Zhao wanted a sky bison staying in the back yard but a ten ton sky bison could stay anywhere it wished. Karo closed the blinds on the bathroom window because having a ten ton sky bison peer in on him while he read the newspaper made him at the very least – uneasy. Aang had rejected the old warehouse as a place for Appa out of hand and so Appa ended up back at the house, squeezed into the small backyard at the back of the townhouse. They lived on the aerodrome flight path so if the island had decent weather, they would have a chance to see a sky bison in someone's backyard.

"We're going to get tickets from animal control for this." Karo muttered as he wiped his face dry and turned the faucet off. "I see huge fines in our future. If they don't see Appa, they will notice the huge freaking blue tarp keeping the rain off him."

At seven in the evening, in the rain, not much could be seen outside. The length of the tropical day varied little from summer to winter and it had begun to grow dark. The price one paid for living in tropical comfort three quarters of the year was horrible monsoons for the other quarter.

"Karo? Sokka just phoned." Aang came up the stairs as Karo exited the washroom. "He's stuck in a place called Nafoli because they got stuck in customs."

"Sokka and Suki?" Karo walked back downstairs. "Why would they _even be_ in Nafoli?" Karo knew Nafoli as an upscale suburb surrounded by vineyards and wineries. Tourists went to Nafoli to see the pretty and pastoral scenery, visit vineyards and sample wine. Karo had no idea why Nafoli would have a customs stop but he could imagine Sokka could get into any amount of trouble due to his lack of planning.

"Sokka and the Kyoshi Warriors." Aang answered as Karo picked up the transit guide for the city off of the coffee table.

"Oh dear Lord!" Karo looked from behind the transit schedule. "All of them including Koko?"

Aang shrugged: "I guess."

"I know your plan of action," Karo stammered. "We will go and pick them up on Appa from wherever Nafoli keeps its customs house – some square brick building with gables I imagine. You will bring them here and I will have to meet Koko again."

"Yes...they are Ty Lee's best friends." Aang answered back. "What about Koko?"

"She's a tall redhead. She wanted to kiss me." Karo explained as he fidgeted with his hands behind his back. "She found me cute and made a pass at me when we went for a picnic."

"Can I see the map? Please?" Aang asked in his polite way. "We can pick them up with Appa. Can you check the visibility?"

"Can you believe Ty Lee and Katara are still at the mall looking for baby things?" Azula said as she threw open the door. "Karo...we owe ten beans for our share of a changing table."

Karo shook his head: "How come you're home so soon?"

"Lady Zhao and Toph found us at the mall and they began to act all girlish and feminine. When Lady Zhao started talking about how she nursed you, I had the overwhelming urge to leave by means of the back door fire escape."

"How's the weather?" Aang asked.

"If you don't know how to build a boat, learn." Azula answered in her patently blunt style. "Lady Zhao will want to know why Appa has gone to sleep under a tarp in our back yard."

"He wants to be close to me." Aang answered.

Azula picked up the phone as it rang.

"Hello?" Azula paused. "Sokka of the Water Tribe?"

Karo looked at Aang.

"Hide under a railway bridge, light a barrel fire and have an orgy?" Azula hung up.

"What?" Karo asked.

"Sokka phoned to tell us he arrived in Nafoli." Azula pulled off her rain hat. "He wanted to know where to find accommodation and so I gave him some advice."

* * *

Komatsu was one of those cities that had sprawled as it grew and now residential areas covered the hillsides. Nafoli had once served as a railway town for the local farmers but the city had sprawled along the coast between the railway lines that ran along the coast inland into the hills.

In the tropical sun, the city with its fine neighborhoods looked striking against the vineyards and tall spires of granite that surrounded it. The topography made for a hazardous journey in the pelting rain and Aang flew Appa slowly along the coast so Azula and Karo could judge their location by the features they could see on shore.

Nafoli had a large grove of mangrove trees that had grown out to sea on a shallow shelf. In clear weather, this served to guide ships to the mouth of the small bay that protected the marina. In the dark, murky rain, even keen eyed Azula had trouble finding her way along the coast. She could see only two hundred meters or so. She tried to follow the cut of the railway lines. She could only make out by the lights of the houses and streets above them and because she could see the sheer face of the wet black granite face of the cut where construction workers had blasted it away with surgical precision.

Karo had suggested following the West Highway because the wide road had lights and went past Nafoli. Azula had flown airships and knew better than to fly Appa over the city. Appa and Avatar Aang had keen air bending skills but not an altimeter and the city was_ hilly_ – the West Highway went through some parts that were canyons and around steep hills which risked plowing a ten ton sky bison into houses or buildings.

She found this unnerving. She had to tell Aang who guided Appa while also taking in information from the map Karo held out. If she made a mistake, Appa might fly into the granite wall or fly out to sea and they would soon get lost, or fly too low over the city and into power lines or fly inland into the granite pillars over the city. She had plans to let Sokka know what a complete pain his lack of planning had caused everyone.

Sokka didn't want to spend another night on board _The Happy Challenger_ but the only inn within walking distance was full. He had phoned Aang and hoped Aang would be able to pick them up and give them a ride downtown – all of them had heard of the luxury hotels and shopping in the city. Many of the Kyoshi Warriors looked forward to this visit as they had not spent time in such a modern city.

He sat below decks in his quarters and studied the charts of the area. Nafoli offered the only docking for sailing vessels for at least forty kilometers.

Lady Ursa waited in the front lounge of her yacht and she barely heard the thump as the captain sailed into the small harbor and ran over a salt water crocodile out trolling for drowning stray house pets. Lady Ursa and Lady Mai had chosen the smallest of the three Royal Yachts named the Akinawa. As yachts went, it had three crew and could take a half dozen or so people in comfort. The Akinawa chugged into port in the dark and made its way to the marina. The ship made a wide turn around the mangrove swamp and slowed down as it approached from the North East.

"Welcome to Nafoli." Lady Mai said sarcastically as she walked into the lounge. The rain made it hard to make out any detail but the blurry lights of houses on the shore. "Anya is still asleep...but she won't be missing anything."


End file.
